The Magic pulled out a weird win at home against the Milwaukee Bucks 108-101. Dwight Howard led the bunch 24/13 even though he only played 31 minutes because of foul trouble again. This is becoming a disturbing trend and is not going to end well for the Magic if Howard can’t get his foul issues under control. I love him getting blocked shots, he had six more last night, but not if it means he can’t play for long stretches because of fouls. He was 10-20 from the free throw line as well and is looking a little too much like Shaq, and that’s not a good thing to be compared to Shaq at the stripe. Turk was back and had 22/9 which included 8 of 8 from the line. Rashard Lewis also finished with 22 points, going 10 of 11 from the line, and played 39+ minutes in spite of his injury scare. I dog Lewis a lot for his inconsistency and soft play but we need him on the floor to be successful. The Magic were 38 of 54 from the fre throw line as a team, opposed to Milwaukee’s 17 of 21, and that’s what put them over the top. JJ Reddick contributed 10 points off the bench and will be getting a lot more playing time with Keith Bogans out. Now to the injuries.
Keith Bogans will be out for at least a month with a fractured thumb and strained ligament in his left hand and that’s gonna be hurt. We should see more of JJ Reddick and Courtney Lee in his absence. Turk came back from the flu and we needed that last night. The biggest concern for the Magic right now has to be Jameer Nelson’s injury. Nelson left the game in the third quarter with a groin strain and it’s uncertain right now how much time, if any, he could miss. Groin strains are tough, and the Magic absolutely need Nelson right now. He has been playing great this season, showing the ability we all had been hoping to see earlier, and he is becoming a vital cog in the Magic machine right now. Hopefully this will be a game or two type of thing as Anthony Johnson can hold down the fort for that long, if any longer they will have to scour the free agent pool. We’ll see what happens, in the meantime have a national game on ESPN tomorrow night in Philadelphia so tune in.
Man that was brutal. Olaf Kolzig got beat down quickly and the Bolts didn’t stand a chance from there. The Lightning looked bad in every way giving up 5 goals before answering with 3 quick scores in the second. Vrbata, St. Louis and Malone did what they could to get the Bolts back in the game, but it was too little too late. They were outshot again 45-29 and the Devils eased up on them late. There is no breaking this down, the Lightning absolutely sucked last night! The offense can’t hang on to the puck, they flail shots with no direction and mishandle the puck way too much. The defense is atrocious, leaving holes all over, not pressuring the puck handler and let Kolzig get beat up on. Kolzig looked slow and out of it and did nothing to secure his position as temp starter while Mike Smith is out. Kari Ramo came in and did an adequate job in mopping up this mess, but the rest of the team needs to fix itself before any goalie will be able to succeed here. Smith has been coming on and Kolzig knows what he’s doing back there, but if the rest of the team skates around like they’re in the Ice-Capades and not the NHL, we’ll all be praying for more OVERTIME LOSSES! It was an embarrassing showing at home and these guys should be ashamed to go out in public right now. Melrose and Torts are gone, can you play well for anyone!? Don’t get us excited with wins if you’re going to come out and get your ass whooped the next night out. This team has too much talent to get beat like this. Stop sucking and play some GD hockey!
Let’s not get too excited about the victory the Bucs got yesterday in Detroit. They obviously fell behind quick and that was enough to bash them. But I’m not gonna harp on that. It’s time for people to stop defending Jon Gruden for his shortcomings. The Bucs got out of Detroit with a 38-20 victory and are ready to take Carolina to the wire for the NFC South title. But here’s the problem with what I watch on Sunday’s with this team. Every week Gruden challenges the defense to score points. How bout challenging the offense Jon? If it weren’t for Clifton Smith and Monte Kiffin this season, the Bucs would be .500 at best. This holds true for other seasons as well and I’m tired of listening to people proclaim Mr. Gruden as one of the best coaches in the NFL. He’s not! It’s a mystery to me what these people see in this guy to call him great. He feuds with players, changes QB’s like underwear and lies to anyone who’ll listen. It’s like saying that a drug addicted, jobless wife is great if she doesn’t cheat on you. There’s more to this than wins and losses. If you go by winning percentage by the way, Gruden is at .523 right now and that doesn’t scream great either. His offenses have never ranked higher than tenth since his arrival (even though they’re ranked ninth right now) and that doesn’t scream great either. Now I’m not saying he hasn’t been useful, he won the Super Bowl here and not Tony Dungy. I can’t stand those people either. It wasn’t Dungy’s team that won the Super Bowl, it was Gruden/Kiffin’s team that won. Monte Kiffin has been the glue that has held this whole thing together for years and at least Gruden has recognized that and hasn’t forced Kiffin to go elsewhere. His faces aren’t funny, they’re fake. His offense is average. His player relationship skills are awful and his talent evaluation is even worse. This is the world of the NFL and change is inevitable. There are people out there who praise and admire Gruden on a daily basis and I can’t help but wonder what they’re being given to say these things. I don’t hate Jon Gruden, I hate the statements made about him being “great”. I could swallow it better if people said he was good or doing well, not great. Monte Kiffin is a great defensive coach, it doesn’t mean he would be a great head coach and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are great coaches around the league, Bill Belichick, Tom Moore, etc.. They’re not all head coaches and they’re not going to be on top every season, but you know they’ll bounce back when they’re down. Now to finish off my point with this whole thing. I’m not saying we need to fire Gruden. I’m saying SHUT UP! Shut up about the “greatness” of Jon Gruden. Stop rolling out the red carpet for his Hall of Fame induction and stop getting mad at people like me who actually recognize the flaws that this guy has. I hate the way he treats players. I hate the way he calls out the defense and not the offense. I hate his love affair with himself. I hate his play calling. There’s a lot that I hate, but not enough to want to wash him away just yet. I liked the way Dungy conducted himself and treated everyone, but I don’t miss him coaching this team. Gruden is helping keep the team competitive so we have to deal with him dissing Mark, uh I mean Mike Alstott and loving Jerramy Stevens, but not forever.
Let’s get to the Pacers game. The Magic pulled out a great road win against an Indiana team that plays much better at home. Orlando was led by Dwight Howard who had 24/17 and swatted 5 shots. Howard blocked a possible game winner at the end of the fourth and a game tyer in overtime. Howard had five more blocks to extend his league lead and stayed out of foul trouble against the Pacers big three of Ford, Granger and Daniels. Rashard Lewis chipped in with 23 points and 6 steals and Jameer Nelson had 22 points and 9 assists to lead the Magic to a 100-98 win. Hedo was awful with 3 points on 1 of 13 shooting and we found out that he had the flu and would miss Saturday’s game for that reason. Hedo always looks sick as he’s naturally ugly so it was hard to tell on Friday that he was sick and left me wondering what the hell was wrong with him. Glad there was an explanation for that performance.
Last night the Rockets came to town, along with former Magic great Tracy McGrady, and issued the Magic a tough home loss. T-Mac wasn’t great but the Rockets spread the ball around nicely and Yao Ming took advantage of Dwight Howard again getting himself in early foul trouble. Not making excuses here, but this would’ve been a completely different outcome had Turkoglu been able to play. His presence would’ve opened things up more for Pietrus and Lewis from the outside. The Rockets spent the evening pounding the paint against the smaller lineup the Magic had to put out in Turk’s absence and the rest is history. JJ Reddick had 13 off the bench and Jameer Nelson had his fourth 20+ point performance in five games. Howard needs to find a better way to get his blocks without getting into foul trouble and Rashard Lewis still needs to learn that he’s big enough to play inside the three point line. Lewis shot 5 of 12 from outside the arc and 1 of 9 from inside. Huh?! How can he be the presence the Magic need when he’s spending way too much time so far away from the hoop? The Magic are 9-4 now and have four games left this month to build some momentum going into the tough December ahead.
The Lightning finally got Rick Tocchet his first victory on Friday, yay! It was amazing, they won by more than one goal and they even stayed out of overtime and shootouts. Mike Smith stopped 34 of 35 and the Vinny’s chipped in 3 goals. Lecavalier had two goals and Prospal had one in their home win against a decent Predator team from Nashville. They came out strong going up 3-1 in the first period and Smith shut the Predators down from there. It’s what we all know this team can do and have been waiting for them to show more often. They need to put a few more game like this together and then we can all start letting go of the drama they created. St. Louis needs to get his groove back and, if Stamkos can start showing some of the ability he has, it will bleed out to the rest of the team. The best part of the crazy season the Bolts have had so far is the retarded scoring system the NHL has. The Lightning lead the league in overtime losses with 6 and that’s what’s keeping them in third place in the Southeast. They have a 6-7-6 record which is worth 18 points and keeps them from being in the basement. I will never understand the point system the NHL has in place. Take a look at the standings and see how stupid it looks when you see the Lightning ahead of two teams with more wins in the same amount of games played. Anyway, it’s good for us so I’ll go with it.
There’s not a whole lot to say about this game. The Lions will come out fired up today. They’re looking for their first win. They beat the Bucs at home last season and will use that as motivation. There’s plenty of former Buc players and coaches on the other sideline and they want to beat us. It shouldn’t matter! The Bucs have a far superior team than the Lions and they should be coming out to show that they can BEAT DOWN the lesser teams that they play instead of letting them hang around or even win. It took a great second half to beat Kansas City in the first trap game the Bucs played and this team should’ve learned something from that. The Bucs are in a dog fight within their division and have to make sure they send a message to the other college team in Michigan and the rest of the league. If this game isn’t at least a two touchdown victory they should be ashamed of themselves.
The Orlando Magic have looked pretty good so far this year. A 9-3 record is good enough for first place in the Southeast. Quality wins over the Sixers, Mavericks and Bulls help build some confidence toward the long road ahead. The real season starts for the boys in blue next month though. That’s when we’re going to find out how much progress they’re making as a team this year. They start off on the road in Boston to face the defending champs. Then, after two games at home, they head out on a very tough West Coast swing that includes the Clippers, Blazers, Suns, Jazz and Warriors. They then come home to face the Spurs and Lakers among others and finish off the month on the road again to face the Pistons and Bulls. It’s gonna be a tough month however it winds up and we should know a lot more about this team before New Year’s Day. The key matchups are obviously the Celtics and Pistons. Both are away games and both teams are the elite of the Eastern Conference. The Celtics returned most of their team and have looked like they haven’t taken any steps backwards so far. The Pistons have struggled a little, especially since the Iverson/Billups deal, but are still among the best. They carry the intimidation factor as well when they face the Magic. Teyshawn Prince has been sick so far this year and Rip Hamilton still poses nightmares for the Magic. We’ll have to see how big a difference Mickael Pietrus can make. Pietrus was brought in with Hamilton in mind. The Magic have had no answer for Hamilton in playoffs past and now have to contend with Iverson as well. I don’t want to pass judgment on anything until we see, but it’s hard to see Magic containing the Hamilton/Iverson/Prince trio come playoff time. There’s no need to break down the Celtics big three, we already know what they can do. Jameer Nelson looks to be improving the way we had hoped (finally) and Mickael Pietrus has been a little better than expected so far. What’s troubling to me is the fact that Pietrus and Howard have been getting in early foul trouble a lot. What happens when they deal with the tougher matchups that are really gonna beat up on them? It’s also been a rough offensive start for Turk and Lewis. We know my opinion on Lewis already so I’ll leave it be, but the Magic need Turkoglu to maintain his presence on the offensive end. He’s uhh, how you say, the straw that stirs the drink. It’s going to be an interesting month for these guys and I personally can’t wait to see it.
I just got home from work and I’m putting together a post for tomorrow. I’ll clean up the Magic and Lightning games later in the weekend. I’m pulling the 7am to 11pm workday tomorrow so I probably won’t get to anything until Sunday.
In not so surprising news today the Bucs placed RB Earnest Graham and LB Geno Hayes on injured reserve and they will be gone for the rest of the season. Graham hurt his ankle in the first quarter of the Viking game and coach Jon Gruden immediately speculated that he was gone for the year. Coach was right for once and Graham’s done. Hayes also left the game Sunday with a knee injury and has been lost for the season. Hayes’ injury isn’t a big blow but Graham’s absence will be huge. This puts a lot more pressure on the aging Warrick Dunn and rookie Clifton Smith. The Bucs added free agent RB Noah Herron and brought back LB Matt McCoy to fill Graham and Hayes’ spots on the roster. McCoy played in a few games earlier in the year when Barrett Ruud went down and did an adequate job. Herron hasn’t played since 2006 and will likely fill the emergency back role once occupied by Micheal Bennett (think the Bucs miss him now?). There is also speculation now that Edgerrin James has asked for his release and, in a round about way, is interested in the Bucs. Buc ‘Em shot this article up pretty quick and has a poll up already. Damn those boys are quick. It will definitely be interesting to see how this all pans out for the Bucs this season as Graham’s loss seems so huge right now. Gruden doesn’t seem to like the run the ball much anyway so it may not be as big as we think, but I do believe the passing game has been opened up due to Graham’s presence and effectiveness when he is used. Garcia has been good so far and Dunn still has life left in his legs, but big Earnest did a lot more dirty work than most so we’ll have to see how it goes. As all this was going down everyone seemed to think Cadillac Williams would immediately fill in but that’s being shut down for the moment. I personally don’t see Williams making much of a difference down the stretch anyway. I thought he was over-rated before and I don’t think everyone out there realizes how hard it’s going to be for him to come back from his knee injury right now. No amount of rehab and practice he could’ve had to this point is going to have his knee and mind in good enough game shape to go out and make a difference on any Sunday this season. This all has made the rest of this season a whole lot more interesting. On another note, there’s not much going on until Friday so I’m taking tomorrow off. Whatever goes down I’ll get to Friday morning and I’m going to get out and enjoy myself for the rest on tonight. See ya!
The Bolts lost again tonight to the Panthers 4-3. If we can take anything out of this loss tonight, at home by the way, it’s the fact that the Bolts got 52 shots on goal tonight. I’m not going to make too much of it but they were way more aggressive tonight than in any other game this year. The Lecavavlier, St. Louis and Stamkos line got off 20 shots on goal and looked pretty good together. The defense is still awful and Mike Smith isn’t going to hold up too well all year being beaten up every night. I guess the only other good thing is the fact that they lost in a shootout, again. At least it’s taking them a while to lose instead of losing within the first three periods like most other teams do. They got the great overtime loss point also and that’s why I’m such a big fan of the NHL scoring system. Does anyone else relate this to ALL kids getting trophy’s for participation now? It seems so stupid to me. Next up is Nashville on Friday at home. Let’s do more than just participate there, huh fellas?
It was a strange night in Orlando. The Magic hosted Toronto last night and were without starting twoguard Mickael Pietrus so that means Keith Bogans gets in there to take up the slack, right? Oops, there was a JJ Reddick sighting and he was shockingly in the starting lineup. Reddick hadonly logged 48 plus minutes in the team’s ten games this year and didn’t play at all in 4 of those games. Getting the start tonight Reddick scored 10 points on 4 of 9 shooting in just over 34 minutes tonight. He didn’t turn the ball over and did a decent job defensively against the Raptor’s guards. Not a bad night for JJ I guess. The Magic again had to overcome an off night from Dwight Howard, who found himself in foul trouble again and finished with an 18/9 line. Hope this doesn’t become a trend. Hedo, Lewis and Nelson all stepped up again in scoring 22 a piece and were able to do enough to hold off Toronto 103-90. The game was closer than it appeared and Chris Bosh was abusing anyone who got in his way in getting off for 40 points and 18 boards. Howard and Battie did a good job on Jermain O’Neal and no one else could step up for Toronto, even with the late run in the fourth quarter. It’s good to see Orlando off to an 11-3 start atop the Southeast in spite of really getting any sort of offense to click consistently. The Magic head to Indiana Friday and it’s gonna be a tough one with Danny Granger and TJ Ford to contend with.
The Rays lost two key pieces to their off the field team today. Joe Magrane left our broadcast booth to head to MLB network to do broadcast analysis and studio work. I’m a little sad about this as Joe has grown on me a little over the last couple seasons. He’s not really witty or insightful but he was entertaining in his own way. I really didn’t care too much for Magrane early on as he really didn’t bring much to the broadcasts and sounded quite uninspired most of the time. He also had annoying tendencies with some of the things he said like scoring “points” and calling pop ups “poppers”. He got a lot more outspoken and entertaining after the new ownership took over which led me to believe there was some sort of gag order on him from the Naimoli group. Since that point I became fond of Magrane’s “everyman” type of style and I’m actually gonna miss him now. The real travesty today was finding out about Kelly Frank’s dismissal as the Rays beloved mascot Raymond. I just found out this year that Raymond was actually a woman. I’ve really enjoyed Raymond over the years. I’ve taken my son to at least 25 games in each of the last two seasons and, especially before the Rays success this year, Raymond was his primary focus. He’s a goofy looking critter who taunts the other players in the dugout, gives away prizes and just always seems to be having fun. Kelly seemed to perfect some of Raymond’s moves like the butt wiggle and some of the dances we routinely saw. She really did a great job as Raymond and I know I’ll never look at Raymond the same. I don’t like this move by the Rays but I’m not gonna throw a fit over a mascot. Maybe she asked for a little too much money or got a little too much attitude and that’s why she got fired, but I’m still gonna miss her.
Barry Melrose appeared on Ron MacLean’s Hockey Night in Canada and tried to explain his dismissal from the Lightning. I’ve posted to video below and I encourage you to watch it and see if you find it as entertaining as I do. Thanks to Puck Daddy by the way for the heads up on this. Melrose sounds very bitter, as he should be, and blames the players by insinuating that they had to have gone to ownership and complain about him and that’s why he was “dismissed”. No shit, huh Barry? It seems that Mr. Melrose still doesn’t understand that you have to build relationships with players in order to succeed. Now let’s think about this, if things were so bad that the players had to seek out ownership to voice their displeasure with you after 16 games, you were not only NOT building relationships, you were alienating these guys. You did things so poorly that you had a revolt before you finished unpacking. There’s a lot to be said about that. This also screams poor management from the top as Oren Koules and company have created a circus in the Forum that may or may not continue. The first obvious mistake was bringing in Melrose without speaking to the players about it. Now I’m not saying every owner needs to consult with all their players regarding coaching decisions, but it’s wise to at least get a thumbs up from your stars like Vinny and Marty before forcing someone like Melrose, who hadn’t coached in 13 plus years, down their throats. It was ignorant on so many levels that it’s just funny. Let’s see, you remove a Stanley Cup winning coach who carried respect in the locker room in favor of a Hockey Analyst turned coach, nice. In doing this they traded away Dan Boyle, who also carried respect in the locker room, for a guy who you turn around and trade 12 games into his Lightning career. Ownership also GM Jay Feaster in favor of Brian Lawton and that looks to be a mistake as well. Things may not be done getting ugly, but at least the delusional Melrose is finally off the bench and can’t continue his nonsense. So long Mullet, maybe the four letter network will have you back.
I had to work Sunday so I didn’t get to look at the whole game until last night. Man did the Bucs look good this week though. The Bucs couldn’t get a good running game going after Earnest Graham went down with an ankle injury after one carry, and apparently this injury may end his season. Jeff Garcia stepped up in a big way going 23 of 30 with 255 yards, 84 of which went to the hated Jerramy Stevens. It was a nice showing for Garcia, but the Bucs defense again proved itself one of the best. The Bucs defense, as good as they’ve been over the years, have always had problems with bigger running backs and Adrian Peterson is as imposing as it gets. The Bucs held Peterson to 85 yards on the ground with no touchdowns. The Bucs have now faced seven of the top ten running backs without giving up a touchdown. Derrick Brooks really looks reborn this year, especially in his play on Sunday. That play in the fourth quarter in pass coverage with Peterson got everyone fired up! The Bucs are still struggling to score in the red zone and that needs to change if they’re going go deep into the playoffs. These guys are still a defense first team and it appears they’ll be so as long as Monte Kiffin is running the show. Matt Bryant was 4 of 5 in field goals and is having a very good season with 24 of 28 field goals, which includes 21 of 21 inside 40 yards. This is on the heels of him strugglingin the pre-season and the death of his infant son. You could make a legitimate case for Bryant being the offensive MVP of this team given their struggles in the red zone. The Bucs are now 7-3 heading into Detroit with three tough division games to follow. They play New Orleans at home and then go on the road to face Carolina and Atlanta. We should know how the season is going to shake out for the Bucs by the time the Chargers come to town on the 21st of December.
The Lightning came out fired up and ready to prove something under new coach Rick Tocchet. They looked better but couldn’t pull out a win on the road, losing 3-2. It’s a tough go in Carolina as it is, and under a new coachthey did about as good as expected. The defense only allowed 30 shots on goal, of which Mike Smith stopped 28, in regulation and overtime. They dropped it in the shootout that Carolina took when Rod Brind’Amour slipped one past Smith and Jussi Jokinen couldn’t answer. I think Tocchet is the type of coach that can get the best out of this team and he should have the rest of this season to prove it. Vinny and Marty had a goal a piece which is a great sign, especially against a tough goalie like Cam Ward. There was also talk yesterday that Steven Stamkos could be moved to the front line along side Vinny and Marty which would move Vinny Prospal to the second line with Radim Vrbata. I would like that move a lot. Stamkos said the pressure would then be on him but I disagree. I think it would take pressure off of him and give Vrbata a more experienced player to help get his offense going. There only needs to be some minor tweaking offensively to get things going and I think this move would help dramatically. The Bolts play at home tonight against the Florida Panthers and we’ll see how they do in the Forum. I’ll get to the Barry Melrose situation later today.
I don’t think anyone who tuned in to watch the fight on Saturday really expected Jeff Lacy to come out of the ring a winner in Tennessee. The surprising thing to me when I watched the fight was how much bigger Jermaine Taylor was and how he used his size to back Lacy down. Taylor did not look sharp by his standards but he landed enough punches to get on Lacy early and rode that the whole way home. Taylor’s hands looked faster and he’s always had great footwork. He did look tentative and sloppy with his powers shots and really didn’t follow up his shots too well all night. It wasn’t a great fight for Taylor but it was important for him to get a win since he hadn’t won in a year and a half. Lacy’s performance also leaves a lot to figure out. Lacy came out noticeably trying to be a more technical fighter and really did a decent job stalking Taylor around the ring. He also fought well on the ropes against a bigger, more powerful Taylor. There were quite a few positives that Lacy can take from the fight. He also needs to recognize that his defense is way too sloppy and needs to find a way to mix his power in with the new technical approach. It wasn’t a bad night for anyone in my opinion.
The Orlando Magic have won three straight now on the road after they beat the Charlotte Bobcats 90-85 on Sunday. It was a game that could have been ugly had everyone not stepped up forDwight Howard who was the focus of the Bobcats and ended up fouling out after only playing 7 plus minutes in the second half. Howard only scored four points on 4 of 6 free throws and was 0 for 3 from the field. Tony Battie played well in Howard’s absence with 9/7 and played great defense in helping limit Emeka Okafor to 8/9 who also was in foul trouble all night. Turk ended up with 20/4 despite shooting 6 of 15. Hedo drew fouls driving the lane and ended up 8 of 9 at the free throw line to offset his poor shooting. Rashard Lewis played decent on both ends and finished with 17/6 in spite of his poor shooting, 6 of 16. Lewis hit some big three’s along with Mickael Pietrus, who had a line of 18/4 while shooting 7 of 13. Pietrus has been improving offensively and we can only hope that he continues to do so. Jameer Nelson had 15/5 and Keith Bogans contributed 7 points off the bench. The Magic had to win this one with defense and Howard added five blocked shots to his league lead before fouling out. It wasn’t pretty, but it works.
There are two fights I’m very interested in watching tonight. The first is the big UFC fight between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar. I don’t know much about MMA and have never really got into it, but this fight really makes me want to watch. I really miss Brian when it comes to this and hopefully he’ll be able to make a comeback on this site one day when his schedule settles down. His wife had the baby, he’s going to school and working so he doesn’t have any time for us right now, but I wouldn’t count him out just yet. Back to it now, I really want to see this. I’ve only seen highlights of Couture’s fights and from what I’ve seen and heard, he’s a pretty bad mother fucker. I remember Brock Lesnar from the WWF, oops WWE (yes I used to watch that crap) and saw what a specimen that guy is. He was a beast in college and has busted his butt to become a professional fighter (for real this time). I have no predictions on this even though I want to pick Lesnar by age alone, but I really want to watch. Now onto my boy Jeff Lacy. Jeff is a St. Pete native and has always been one of my favorite guys to watch. I can’t figure out why the hell Jermaine Taylor would take this fight right now though. Taylor has lost some luster and is trying to fight his way back into being a legit contender again, but he’s got way too much to lose here and not enough to gain. As much as I love Lacy, a win against him isn’t going to look as good on Taylor’s resume right now and, if he were to lose, it could single-handedly bring Lacy back from obscurity. It’s a win win for Lacy, even though he didn’t like the purse and threatened to retire. If Lacy loses, well lets face it, he can’t fall much farther. If he wins, he’s back! It’s the confidence boost and big name fighter Jeff needs to climb out of the cellar. I can’t wait to see this fight because I think Lacy’s going to come out with a reckless all out approach that’s either going to pound Taylor into another world or set him up for a quick beating. Either way it goes it should be extremely entertaining. I never bet boxing but, if I did, I’d lean to Lacy in this and I know I’m gonna be insane if he gets it done.
What an outstanding victory for the Magic tonight. It doesn’t matter if the Mavs have been struggling and it doesn’t matter that Josh Howard is either blind or stupid. A road win is a road win and the Magic hadn’t won a game in Dallas since 1997. Jameer Nelson, Mickael Pietrus and Rashard (yes Rashard tonight) Lewis stepped up big in Orlando’s 102-100 victory tonight. Big Dwight only scored 18 and the rest of the boys stepped up to help out tonight. The Magic trailed to start the fourth quarter 80-72 and outscored the Mavs 30-20 behind Pietrus, Nelson and Lewis. Pietrus, Nelson and Lewis had 20, 21 and 23 respectively which included 6, 8 and 8 in the fourth. Pietrus had that sick killer look on his face when he hit those two late threes and Lewis hit 2 of the final three (Nelson went 1 of 2) put away free throws to finish it. Lewis actually played some good defense on Dirk Nowitzki (no really, he did) and the Magic pulled out a nice come from behind victory. Hedo Turkoglu fouled out with just over two minutes left after another off night offensively for him. The Mavs reporters will have a field day with Josh Howard in Dallas after this though. With around 10 seconds left and the Mavs down 101-100, Howard threw an awful inbound pass in Jason Terry’s direction that went straight into Jameer Nelson’s arms as if intended for him. Nelson held on, hit 1 of 2 free throws and that finished it off. To me it doesn’t matter that the Mavs are now 2-7 on the season, this was still a big win for Orlando and they should feel good about themselves tonight. The best part of the comeback was the fact that it wasn’t the annoying ‘foul everyone down the stretch and bomb three point shots’ kind of comeback that’s so typical on today’s NBA. It was a straight up tight defense, good shooting victory. The Magic have another tough road game coming on Sunday in Charlotte so they better not party too much, but they need to enjoy this one.
Wow, this one snuck up on me. I’ve been patiently watching things unfold for Melrose as he took over the Lightning and finally decided today to get on here dig into the Mullet a little for the teams play and his day off. It looks like the Bolts higher ups were quite a bit more upset about it than I was as they fired him after only 16 games. Damian Cristodero first reported this over at Lightning Strikes nd I have got to admit that I’m a little shocked by it. I know the team hasn’t been doing well, but they have eerily similar problems now as they did last year. I know it’s never all the coaches fault when the team falters, but this seems strange to me. There must be something more to this than any of us know and it’ll be an interesting story to follow over the next few days. Rick Tocchet has taken over and we should find out pretty quick how the players react to this. Lord knows they can’t play much worse under Tocchet than they did under Melrose. More to come on this over the weekend.
